


Our Girl Ranma

by Beedok



Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: AFAB Ranma, Gen, but not confirming any, just a silly little AU, lots of ships hinted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24654532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beedok/pseuds/Beedok
Summary: For part of this challenge. I got a bit too ambitious.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 47
Collections: AFAB Ranma AU Challenge Collection





	Our Girl Ranma

Age 7

Ranma sat in her room, holding her stuffed godzilla toy as she heard her father come home. Her mother’s shouts followed almost immediately. It was strange: she was the one who’d gotten into the fight at school, but it was dad that her mother was angry with.

Sneaking over to open her door just a crack, she listened in, curiosity getting the better of her fear.

“So, did Ranma win the fight or not?” Genma asked.

“That doesn’t matter!” Nodoka hissed back.

“Of course it matters! Ranma’s supposed to be my heir. Losing a fight to some random brat wouldn’t look very good for the school.”

“Our _daughter_ got into a fight because you’ve trained her to think being called a girl is an insult, and you don’t see that as an issue!?”

“If Ranma needs to be tough enough to inherit the school. A girly girl is no good for that,” Genma replied flatly.

Ranma closed her door quickly and scurried to hide in her room. She didn’t want to hear anymore.

-b-

Ranma tried her best to sleep, despite the tension in the apartment from the earlier argument. She kept waking up though, confused and scary dreams filling her sleep.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark once again, she jumped a little as she noticed a figure in the shadows. A moment’s more adjustment and her eyes realised it was her mother, a soft smile on her face.

“Come on, Ranma. I’ve packed up the essentials. Let’s head out,” Nodoka said, her voice soft.

“Head out? W-where?” the small redhead asked, her mind still groggy.

“Somewhere away from your father. I’ve put up with his nonsense for too long, and I can finally see how you’re hurting from it. So, we’ll go on a trip, and you can see that being a girl isn’t so bad.”

Ranma nodded, and hurried to get dressed. Within a few minutes the pair were out in the street, heading to catch a train into central Tokyo. They walked past the nearest station, Ranma wasn’t sure why, but the next closest wasn’t too much farther to walk. When they arrived, they saw the station wouldn’t open for another half an hour, and the pair ducked into a nearby Yoshinoya restaurant to grab something to eat while waiting on the trains.

“I think the first priority will be getting you some nicer clothing. Those clothes you have now are fine for playing about, but a young girl should have the option to dress up a little,” Nodoka said, as she let her coffee cool. “Even if we won’t have much space, at least two nice outfits would be good.”

Ranma nodded as she picked at her cheese and egg curry. “I can still do martial arts though, right?”

Her mother smiled down at her. “Of course. I know a few styles out there appropriate for a young girl. We’ll prove to your father you can be a lady _and_ a martial artist.”

“A princess ninja?” Ranma asked, feeling instantly enamoured with the idea.

“Oh, kunoichi training? I suppose that would be a good fit,” her mother said, before sipping her coffee. “Might be a little tricky to find a trainer, considering the art, but it’s worth trying.”

-b-

Age 15

Ranma felt herself sweating under the desert sun of western China. She supposed she could handle it better than she’d have done with the frigid winters of a land so far from the ocean, but it didn’t mean she was thrilled by it.

“Why can’t these Joketsuzoku live somewhere easier to get to?” Ranma asked, before taking a swig of unpleasantly warm water from her canteen.

“Patriarchal societies have pushed them and their cousins to the back corners of the world,” Nodoka explained, pausing to take a breather herself. “I’m sure the training they can provide you will be worth this travel though.”

Ranma gave her mother a smile before the pair headed off once again. She knew martial arts were of only mild interest to her mother, a fan of watching the grace of katas, but in no way a practitioner. She hoped that some of the _non-martial_ arts in this hidden matriarchy would interest her mother, as some sort of reward for putting Ranma’s interests so ahead of her own.

Rounding a hill, Ranma and her mother were both surprised to see a lush valley ahead of them.

“It must be a rain shadow effect, with the mountains,” Nodoka said, looking over the rough landscape that surrounded it.

Ranma’s eyes locked on the small village down the way. She hoped that was the village of female champions, because it felt like a hidden paradise.

As the pair headed down towards the village, checking their map to ensure it was indeed their destination, Ranma practised the greeting she’d been taught. A request for teachings, as a woman interested in protecting the Joketsuzoku’s arts. She hoped her pronunciation would be acceptable, the tonal nature of the dialect still confused her a little.

Another thirty minutes of walking or so, the paired arrived at the village gate, a giant of a woman guarding it. She held a warhammer of some sort on her shoulder as she raised an eyebrow at the two arrivals. Ranma instantly felt reminded of her diminutive stature, and found her mind freezing for a moment. Then she blurted the line she’d been rehearsing, probably too fast to be properly intelligible.

She braced for anger, hoping her short legs could outrun this giant of a woman, when the unexpected happened: the woman began to laugh.

“ _Mongolchuud_ ? ... _Việt? ...._ Japanese? ... _Hanguk-in?_ ” the woman listed.

“Japanese,” Nodoka said, bowing deeply, as Ranma still felt confused by the laughter.

Ranma quickly joined her mother in bowing a moment later. The guard let out a ‘mhm’ like noise, before gesturing that the two should follow her. Walking through the village, the short redhead was thrilled to see that not all the local women were giants, and many were dressed far more femininely. She, herself, had nothing against women uninvested in cosmetics and fashion, but she was on a mission to prove a different path in life.

The trio arrived at one of the larger homes in the village. The guard motioned for the Japanese guests to halt at the door. Ranma and Nodoka complied, and waited for a few minutes, watching the bustling village. Ranma found herself a smidge distracted by noticing some of the villagers were actually men who were dressed finely. A few even had pierced ears or were wearing makeup too. Other men were dressed far more spartan, much like the guard and a not insignificant portion of the other women.

“So, are both of you potential students?” an ancient sounding voice asked.

Turning, Ranma saw a tiny being, so wrinkled and aged she barely registered the being as human at first.

“Just-just me. My mother is not a fighter,” Ranma replied.

“I am, however, certainly interested in learning about other aspects of your culture,” Nodoka added with a bow.

The ancient woman nodded. “Well, we’ll give you a quick test to see your capabilities. Do you specialise in armed or unarmed combat, child?”

“Armed,” Ranma replied. “Naginata in particular.”

“For your sparring test we’ll stick to a simple staff, for safety purposes,” the old woman stated. “Come with me, I’ll run you through a few tests, then see what my great granddaughter thinks of you, being more your age group.”

“Th-thank you,” Ranma said with a bow, before discovering the old woman was already bouncing off on her walking stick.

Ranma and Nodoka hurried after her, finding the old woman surprisingly fast and difficult to follow.

Arriving at the sparring ground, the ancient woman barked some orders than caused the assembled girls (who mostly looked Ranma’s age or a little younger) to scatter about into the stands. A rather elegant and solidly built girl with indigo hair tossed Ranma a staff nearly twice as long as she was tall before the ancient woman beckoned her over.

Ranma and the elder bowed quickly before sliding into fighting positions. Ranma opened her senses, as her kunoichi training had taught, ready to react to any movement from her opponent. To her shock, by the time she detected the old woman’s intent the ancient warrior was almost upon her. Dodging and bringing the staff up to block her foe's strike, Ranma felt her heart racing. She knew she didn’t dedicate her life as totally to martial arts as some did, but she didn’t think she was so hopeless.

Her ancient foe gave a few more lightning strikes, Ranma nearly losing her footing for one of them. She was amazed to hear that the crowd of girls were cheering however. She didn’t think she was managing anything entertaining... maybe they just liked seeing outsiders humiliated?

“You’re very defensive, child,” the elder said.

“I have been trained to strike only when I detect an opening. You have never presented even the slightest hint of one,” Ranma replied, keeping alert in case the conversation was meant to distract her.

The old woman smiled. “I have given many false openings though. Very impressive that you could tell those from the real thing. Your ability to sense aggression is exemplary as well. You’ve practiced the ability to read a foe far better than... possibly anyone your age I’ve met. Your main style is that of the ninja of your land, isn’t it?”

“Is that acceptable?” Ranma asked, worried she may be seen as dishonourable for it.

“Assassination is the great leveller in conflict. Our village has used it against invaders countless times. You need to learn a bit more about proper combat though. I, Cologne of the Nujiezu, shall happily assign you to my great granddaughter to serve as her apprentice... Shampoo!”

The indigo haired girl from before hurried up, and a brief conversation in the local language followed. The girl shouted to the crowd and someone threw her a staff similar to Ranma’s.

What followed was a sparring match to better gauge Ranma’s physical ability. While she could read Shampoo far more easily than Cologne, Shampoo was still as fast as lightning and difficult to dodge. The redhead found exhaustion setting in as the fight went on. She also had to marvel at the taller girl’s durability. No matter how many times she struck, nor how vital a target she chose, Shampoo soldiered on.

Finally, a staff jab to the gut caused Ranma to double over, winded and barely holding down the contents of her stomach.

Lying on the ground in pain, she was amazed when Cologne informed her Shampoo was happy with her abilities.

-b-

A little over a month had passed, Ranma and Nodoka living with the Nujiezu (as they called themselves) and growing more used to their culture. The language was still difficult to understand, but the bits the two Japanese guests picked up, combined with the Japanese Shampoo was picking up (at a deeply impressive rate) meant the trio could generally communicate most things without Cologne’s aid.

Training had been going well. Ranma still wasn’t used to unarmed combat, but the constant drills in Nujiezu weapons were expanding her horizons greatly. Ranma had found the birthday celebrations Shampoo arranged for her loads of fun as well.

The only issue Ranma was having was the way so many of the local boys seemed enamoured with her. She supposed her foreign nature was probably appealing in some way, but she had training to focus on. Boys flirting with her was an annoying distraction. Besides, Shampoo was right there, being, quite possibly, the most beautiful girl Ranma had ever seen. Why the boys would choose her over a goddess in the flesh, Ranma couldn’t guess.

It seemed Shampoo had picked up on her interest to get out of the village for a bit, as the pair, with Nodoka, had headed off to a nearby training ground. Arriving, Ranma almost felt bad about the idea of sparring there, the countless ponds were so serene looking. Disturbing the peaceful valley with shouting and the thwack of staffs seemed inappropriate.

“People say water have curse here,” Shampoo said. “Bring bad luck or... something. So, no fall in, okay _xuetu_?”

Ranma nodded. “S-sure.”

“No be so scared. If curse _that_ bad, they close training ground,” Shampoo replied.

Ranma glanced nervously to her mother, but then followed Shampoo up onto the bamboo polls. The pair began to practice their staff techniques, the loud thwack of wood against wood echoing across the small valley.

After a few minutes a portly man in a PLA uniformed charged out from a small shack. He shouted something in rapid Mandarin that Ranma couldn’t follow, but which got an angry reply from Shampoo.

Ranma could only stare confused while Shampoo rolled her eyes. She seemed to notice Ranma’s staring, and gave her a smile.

“Beijing pawn here complain springs dangerous, like Shampoo not know. This her homeland.”

“Japanese?” the man shouted. “Springs are very dangerous! Not a joke! Honoured guest could turn into a yak if falling in!”

“A yak?” Ranma yelled back, panic filling her heart.

She didn’t want to turn into a bulky hoofed mammal. Looking around, she realised there was nowhere good to land from where she was, so she made an effort to bound across a few bamboo poles to try to get to dry ground. Unfortunately, as she landed on one, a sickening cracking noise followed a split second later and she found herself falling.

Flailing, she tried to find some way to save herself, but hit the water a split second later.

It was cold. A cold that shot down to the bone, and somehow kept going. Like it reached into her very essence, past her physical form. As the shock of the temperature crested, Ranma’s mind became focused on getting out of the water, and getting to air. She’d worry about what she’d been turned into after she got oxygen (assuming she’d not turned into a fish, but... she assumed that would feel more alien than her body currently felt).

Breaking out of the water, she took a gasp of air and swam over to the edge of the pond.

“Honoured guest get off easy. Still human,” the military man said.

“I am?” Ranma said, her heart fluttering.

Her voiced did sound kind of funny though.

“Mhm, yes. Fall in spring of the drowned man,” the guide replied.

“M-man?” Ranma gasped, unbuttoning the shirt she wore to stare in shock at a remarkably flat chest.

“My... my little girl,” Nodoka muttered not far away.

Ranma turned to her, not sure what to say, only to be left shouting as her mother fainted, landing in a pool with a splash.

“Oh, older customer not so lucky. That is spring of drowned panda.”

-b-

Nodoka cradled the kettle in her lap with a smile. Ranma could understand her mother’s happiness, once the situation had been explained. Both of them were thrilled the curses were reversible, but Ranma could only imagine how unsettling changing species was, considering how weird just changing sexes felt.

The look on Shampoo’s face was much harder for Ranma to explain, her trainer having been strangely quiet and lost in thought since Ranma’s own curse was revealed.

“Is there a cure?” Ranma asked, ignoring her uncertainty about her friend.

“Yes. The spring of the drowned girl should cure you both,” the guide replied. “Not yet though. Curses are unstable this early. How long it will take them to stabilise enough to let you back into Jusenkyo... I can not say.”

“Ranma should no think of cure,” Shampoo said, drawing the cursed girl’s eyes back to her. “There is law with Nujiezu, to handle males who try to sneak into village... Shampoo feels that rule should be invoked.”

“What la—” Ranma began, only to have her wrist grabbed by her mother and be yanked to her feet.

“Don’t you dare!” Nodoka hissed, before making a break for it, pulling Ranma along behind her.

Nodoka was running at a speed Ranma had rarely seen her mother reach. Ranma didn’t understand why they were running, but found her footing to run alongside her mother. Once they’d reached the more forested hills, Ranma pulled her mother up into a tree, using her kunoichi training to conceal them.

“What was that about?” she whispered, eyes peeled for Shampoo.

“The law of the Nujiezu... if a male sneaks into the village training system and is caught his life is forfeit,” Nodoka explained.

“What!?” Ranma yelped, her surprise getting the better of her training. She took a breath to calm herself. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“It wasn’t really relevant, now was it?”

Ranma let out a sigh, admitting that her mother had a point. Ranma wrapped her arms around her legs, left wondering _why_ Shampoo would invoke that law on her.

“We’ll hide out until nightfall. I can probably sneak in and get our things after dark,” Ranma muttered. “Unless Cologne’s around. No way could I sneak past her.”

-b-

Luckily, Cologne had not been present, their belongings left in the small house they’d been set up in. Ranma had managed to get in and out unseen.

She’d been mildly surprised when her mother had decided to make a beeline for Xining, and then fly back to Tokyo, but supposed there wasn’t much else for them in China. Shampoo and her village would no doubt guard the springs to keep them away, so it was just a matter of living with their curses.

It was only on their arrival back to Tokyo, and Nodoka leading Ranma onto a train, that the next part of the plan was given.

“If you’re going to stay cursed, then... then a promise your father made when he was younger comes into play,” Nodoka said, as the pair rode the Narita Express towards Tokyo Station.

“What... what promise would that be?” Ranma asked, eyeing her mother nervously.

“A marriage promise. He and his best friend promised each other that, if it were possible, they’d have their children unite their families and martial arts schools,” Nodoka replied. “Of course, Tendo had only daughters, and we had you, so... it hadn’t seemed possible.”

Ranma felt a mess of strange emotions bubble in her stomach. Marrying another woman... that wasn’t what a proper young lady did. True, the idea of marrying a man had never appealed, but she had always figured that would just take time. She needed to meet a cultured man, rather than the confused boys around her age.

Then, the issue that really brought heat to her cheeks, was that she’d be serving the role of husband in such a marriage. A wife to another woman she was sure she could, somehow, figure out, but a husband? The idea brought back memories of her father, and his insistence she abandon all femininity in the name of martial arts.

“C-can we just ignore this promise?” Ranma asked, even if she knew it was a lost cause. Her mother was a firm believer in family honour and, especially, keeping the promises one made.

“Both men swore their family honour on the promise. Even if your father has done nothing but drain that bank of honour, that just puts more impetus on us to rebuild the Saotome name,” Nodoka replied. “I’ve already sent word ahead to Tendo to expect us.”

“I wouldn’t mind dropping the family name though,” Ranma whispered to herself as she watched the northern suburbs of Tokyo zip past outside the train.

-b-

It just had to rain as they made their way through the winding streets of Nerima. At least they’d managed to get directions before Nodoka had turned into a panda. Ranma squirmed with her clothing, now all slightly too small. She was willing to wear clothes that were big on her, but there was a limit for what looked good. Sadly, that limit was still a bit below the sizing that suited her new male form. (As if giving up skirts didn’t annoy her enough.)

Finally, as the rain ironically decided to let up, the pair arrived at the Tendo Dojo. Ranma took a deep breath and walked through the gate, stopping to knock on the front door. A moment later a man with long black hair and a reasonably bushy moustache opened the door, a devious looking teenage brunette at his side.

“Are you Ranma then?” Soun asked.

“Um, yes?” Ranma muttered, fidgeting awkwardly.

“My boy!” Soun declared, pulling Ranma into a hug that left her temporarily stunned.

“Not bad, not bad at all,” the brunette said as Soun released Ranma. “Even if you’re barely 16, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of your face.”

“Nabiki, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but Ranma really should meet Akane and Kasumi before he makes any decisions,” Soun said, before turning back to Ranma. “Come on, my boy, let’s get you in out of this foul weather so you can meet the rest of the family.”

Ranma nodded stiffly, before shooting her mother a confused look. Had Nodoka not explained her condition in the information she’d sent? Sadly, Nodoka was still a panda, so no explanation was forthcoming, only a shrug that she hoped was meant to be apologetic.

Awkwardly, she followed Soun into the house, feeling concerned about the look that the brunette... Nabiki was giving her. It was off-puttingly similar to the look the boys back at the Nujiezu village used to give her normal form.

“Akane, Kasumi, here’s Ranma,” Soun announced as they arrived in the living room.

“What’s with the panda?” the darker haired girl asked.

Soun opened his mouth, as if to reply, before freezing and turning to Ranma. “Um, why _are_ you being followed by a panda?”

“It’s a long story?” Ranma offered, still not sure how to play this.

She wanted to open with the truth, it seemed safest, but... if her mother had apparently not explained everything in the letter, did that mean the proper path was to continue with half truths?

“Well, I’ve seen plenty,” Akane muttered. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go clean up after my practice.”

“But, Akane, Ranma hasn’t had a chance to talk to you,” Soun protested. “How are we going to set up this engagement if he doesn’t get to talk to all three of you?”

“I’d say Nabiki’s clearly called dibs already,” Akane replied.

The brunette in question gave a thumbs up from where she stood beside Ranma.

“Oh, very well... hygiene is important,” Soun sighed as he sat at the table.

After the man gave a quick gesture, Ranma and her mother joined him, though Nodoka still found sitting properly as a panda difficult. Ranma was also left a bit uncomfortable with just how closely Nabiki sat on her other side.

“So... you were training in China were you? That must have been exciting,” Nabiki asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Ah, well... it was, um, fun to start? Ended poorly though,” Ranma replied, fussing with a strand of her, currently black, hair.

“You should really tell us all about it,” Soun said. “I gathered from your mother’s letter you’re a martial artist, but that you didn’t really follow your father’s style? Which style or styles have you learned?”

“Well, I dabbled a little,” Ranma answered, completely truthfully, thankfully.

Before she could explain more, Kasumi excused herself to go gather some snacks and refreshments. Anxiously, Ranma started with her naginata lessons, hoping that it wouldn’t be seen as _too_ feminine (a nervous glance to her mother showed her only what looked like a face of confusion, which answered none of Ranma’s questions). Soun seemed honestly engaged with the conversation, while Nabiki... Ranma was pretty sure most of her responses were faked interest. Was the girl desperate for a boyfriend?

As Kasumi returned with a tray of cookies and a pot of tea, Ranma found herself distracted. The hot water was so tempting.

“I will say, we probably need to do something about your fashion sense, it’s kind of... _soft_ ,” Nabiki said in the pause. “The makeup might cause some rumours too. I mean, some guys wear eyeshadow at school, but... not really the jocks.”

Ranma felt her ears grow hot at that. Awkwardly trying to navigate the new masculinity she’d been presented was one thing, but having her femininity directly attacked like that... it brought back memories she didn’t like.

“Oh, there’s plenty more than that to cause rumours,” Ranma replied sharply, before grabbing the tea pot off the table.

Eyes narrowed at Nabiki, Ranma poured the hot water on herself, wincing a little at it being hotter than she’d first expected. As she shrank, she got some pleasure off the confused look on Nabiki’s face.

With Soun and Kasumi staring at her as well, Ranma turned to her mother and gave a bow.

“I’m sorry. I could maintain the ruse for any longer.”

The panda that was Nodoka opened her mouth a moment, letting out that rough panda noise, before grabbing the kettle from Ranma and hurrying out of the room.

“He’s a girl? Daddy, what’s going on here?” Nabiki asked her father in a sharp tone.

“Uhh,” was all that Soun provided.

“I... that was the last of the strawberry tea we had in the house,” Kasumi said, her voice soft.

“S-sorry about that,” Ranma replied, giving a bow to the eldest sister.

As she sat back up, her mother returned, human and dressed. The assembled Tendos stared in confusion as Nodoka sat down beside Ranma.

“Tendo-san, I think I speak for my daughter when I ask: why did you not explain the situation to your daughters?”

“Nodoka? Where did you... and what situation?” Soun replied.

Nodoka just stared back at him for a few moments. “What do you mean ‘what situation’? I explained the curses in my letter?”

“Oh... um... I may have skimmed the letter slightly in my excitement,” Soun replied sheepishly.

“You _skimmed_ the letter? And missed that the ‘boy’ coming over was really a girl!? Seriously dad??” Nabiki hissed.

“That is rather poor reading comprehension,” Kasumi added.

Soun shrank back a bit, muttering half formed defenses. As he did so, Akane, in fresh clothing, walked past in the hallway. The dark haired girl locked eyes onto Ranma, who met her gaze with a nervous wave. Akane looked around the room, clearly hunting for the ‘boy’ she’d seen earlier. Or the panda.

“Perfect timing, little sis,” Nabiki said, a slightly menacing grin on her face. “Turns out I called dibs too soon. Ranma’s all yours.”

“Pardon?” Akane asked, before glancing over at her father. “What did daddy do? And... why would I want Ranma anyhow? And... and, who’s this girl and that woman?”

“That’s Ranma and _her_ mother,” Nabiki replied.

That descended everything into confusion. Nodoka taking the lead as she explained the specifics of the promise and how Ranma technically met the requirements for being able to marry one of the Tendo girls. She also ran through the explanation of how the curses worked.

Finally, as the basics were wrapped up, Soun cleared his throat.

“I do apologise for not reading things properly... and I recognise that this matter is a bit unusual, but... I think we can still get a marriage out of this. So, which girl catches your eye most?”

Ranma felt herself blush, glancing at all three Tendo sisters. She didn’t really know what to say. She’d never been asked her opinion of other girls like this... she’d been raised to expect to be the one catching eyes, not the other way around.

“It’s Akane,” Nabiki said.

“Oh yes, Akane is the best fit,” Kasumi added.

“Oy! Why me? You seemed pretty happy with her earlier, Nabi!” Akane protested.

The other two sisters gave her knowing stares that lead to Akane blushing as well.

“Just because I said I don’t like boys doesn’t mean I like girls!” Akane hissed.

“Ranma can be your trial run to find out though,” Nabiki countered.

“It’s a golden opportunity for you,” Kasumi added.

“If it’s, um... any consolation, I’m just as unsure of the idea of marrying a girl as you are?” Ranma offered.

Akane’s anger deflated a bit as she turned to Ranma. Ranma offered her a shy smile, which got a similar smile out of Akane. The redhead felt her cheeks grow warm as she took in how lovely Akane looked.

“I don’t know about a relationship, but, I would like to be friends at least?” Akane offered.

“Sounds good to me,” Ranma replied.

-b-

Ranma watched as Akane battled a swarm of boys in the rain, admiring the other girl’s exceptional melee combat skills. She kept out of the mess herself, but made use of some of the pebbles in the area around the entrance as throwing weapons, aiming for the legs of some of the boys who seemed to be particularly dishonourable in their attacks. With the improvised nature of the projectiles, Ranma rarely hit pressure points, but a well thrown stone to the thigh still hurt and threw the boys off.

Akane was panting in the middle of a pile of battered lads as Ranma walked up to her, smiling away.

“That was so cool! You’re like a human tornado!” Ranma declared, making her way gingerly through the scattered unconscious boys.

“Tornado? Am I really that chaotic?” Akane asked, a bit defensive.

Before Ranma could reply that she’d meant it as a compliment, a male voice shouted out: “Halt!”

Ranma turned to the source, and found herself looking at a rather tall lad armed with a bokuto.

“Who art thou, to act so familiar with the fair Akane? And to intervene in her combat?”

“Saotome Ranma,” the girl-turned-boy said with a bow. “I’m... uh, staying at her home?”

To Ranma’s confusion, the tall boy’s eye twitched furiously. “You dare to invade the home of my beloved!?”

“Pardon?” Ranma asked, turning to Akane for an explanation.

“I want nothing to do with him, but he keeps trying to flirt, I swear,” Akane replied.

Ranma was surprised to realise that that comment calmed her racing heart. Was she... was she really feeling jealous for another girl? Sure, they were engaged, but that was only in theory. It wasn’t like she actually—threat!

Ranma leapt out of the way as a bokuto swung where her head had been a split second before.

“No one ignores Kuno Tatewaki, knave!”

Ranma dodged and dipped as Kuno’s assault continued, giving a panicked ‘eep’ as one of his strikes sliced a tree in half, and grazed the tips of her long ponytail.

“Woah! Watch the hair!” Ranma protested.

“Thou worrieth for thine hair when thine life is in danger? Art thee as vain as a woman, rogue?” Kuno shouted, before launching another bokuto jab.

“As vain as a wom—I _am_ a girl, mister!” Ranma shouted.

Kuno froze a moment, eyes filled with confusion. “Pardon?”

“It’s true, Kuno,” Akane added as she walked over. “Ranma picked up a curse in China that turns her into a boy with water, but she’s a girl. If you’d stopped to pay attention, you’d have probably noticed her lip gloss and eyeshadow.”

Kuno paled to the point he might disappear in a Hokkaido winter. “I... I have attacked a-a-a woman?”

Ranma was ready to explain more, when she realised Kuno’s eyes had glazed over. Waving her hand a bit, she realised he’d fainted standing up. Akane said to leave him, and the pair headed to the bathroom to get Ranma some hot water.

-b-

The next few weeks went reasonably smoothly. There’d been some chaos when their classmates had found out about both Ranma’s curse and her engagement to Akane, but most of the class had accepted Akane’s claim it was just a temporary thing, until they talked their parents out of it. A few girls made noises about someone ‘half boy’ using their changeroom, but Ranma easily proved her femininity to the rest of the class (even if her upbringing had been a little old fashioned and few of the girls cared for her flower arranging skills).

The news that Akane was engaged to a girl, however reluctantly, had also spread to the Hentai Horde. The vast majority of the boys had decided losing Akane to a girl was better than losing her to another guy and relented. The others were beaten up badly enough with their limited numbers to surrender the next day, Akane agreeing to let Ranma join in on the fun as her friend.

Ranma and Akane had also been getting along quite well, at least when Ranma was in her birth form. The youngest Tendo was still a bit awkward about Ranma’s other side.

Wanting to spend more time that way, to help Akane (and herself) get used to things, Ranma decided to take advantage of a rainy walk home.

“What do you say we stop for some hamburgers?” the girl-turned-boy asked, twiddling her thumbs a little to calm down.

“Burgers? Sure, I could go for some. I didn’t realise you’d eat something so... so western?” Akane replied, as she took the lead of heading towards the burger joint they passed most days. She wasn’t making the best eye contact, but Ranma was sure that would take time.

“They look tasty, I figured I should try them,” Ranma replied, following after.

The walk was short enough, and the pair were sat in a booth together with a small pile of burgers a few minutes later. Ranma unwrapped hers, lifting it up, and took a small testing nibble.

“Mmm! The sauce! So very good.”

“You’ve really never had one before?” Akane asked, most of the way through her first burger. “I was just teasing before.”

“They’re... well, they’re kind of a messy and un-ladylike food,” Ranma admitted. “But, I figure I can use my curse for something at... why are you giving me that look?”

“Are you saying you think I’m un-ladylike then? Inviting me here?” Akane said, her eyes narrowing.

“Well... yes? You’re much more of a tomboy than a lady in training,” Ranma replied, confused how the difference had apparently escaped Akane.

The glare she got for the explanation further confused Ranma.

“I really don’t think you’re in any place to be insulting _my_ femininity,” Akane fumed.

“Who said anything about insulting y—” Ranma began, until she felt a familiar presence.

“ _Nihao_ Ranma!” a familiar voice piped in from just over Ranma’s shoulder.

Ranma turned, her eyes growing wide as she spotted Shampoo in the aisle beside the booth, smiling away. The smile unsettled Ranma to the core, with the knowledge of why Shampoo was here factored in. She was further confused by the lack of aggressive energy coming off Shampoo... had her mother been wrong about Nujiezu laws, or was Shampoo simply so comfortable with enforcing the punishment for male intruders that she bore no malice?

Another time, Ranma might have stopped to ask, but she wasn’t ready to risk Akane. The other girl was better at melee combat than Ranma any day, but neither of them was a proper match for Shampoo, and the idea of Akane getting hurt filled Ranma with dread. As such, the cursed girl leapt across the table, scooping Akane into her arms. Ranma then launched them both across the restaurant to the nearest door, kicking it open to make a break for it.

“Woah! Hey! What are you-who was-where are we going?” Akane protested, flailing in a way to make her hard for Ranma to carry.

“I’m taking you to safety. That was Shampoo,” Ranma replied.

Akane’s eyes widened with understanding. “She seemed so friendly... I thought your mum said she was planning to kill you?”

“I know! I’m confused, but I needed to get you out of there at least. To get you to safety.”

“Get me to... I’m a better fighter than you are!” Akane shouted.

“No arguments there, but Shampoo is better than either of us. I can dodge you when sparring, since I can read your moves and aura, but... with Shampoo, even reading her, she’s usually fast enough I barely manage to block,” Ranma explained. “And, if she really does want to kill me, she was managing to disguise any malice in her aura. I might not stand a chance at all.”

“Alright, fine... you can put me down though. She isn’t follow us,” Akane said.

Ranma nodded, and set her down. The cursed girl couldn’t help but admire the way Akane looked so good, even with her cheeks red from outrage. She shook the thought out of her head though. There were other worries to deal with.

The pair made their way back to the Tendo home, Akane complaining about all the burgers they’d left behind, and Ranma reluctantly promising to refund her, somehow.

Akane remained in a difficult to read mood for the last stretch of the walk, and the pair went to their separate rooms once they arrived home. Ranma decided to gather the various tools of a kunoichi she carried, preparing booby traps for her window before trying to work out something her mother would notice, but that Shampoo would miss for the door. She was debating about the option to hide in the closet, to ambush Shampoo in place of a door booby trap, when there was a knock.

Sliding her bedroom door open cautiously, she was greeted by Kasumi’s smiling face.

“There’s someone down in the living room who wants to see you, Ranma,” the eldest Tendo girl said, her voice as soft as always.

“Oh, um.. okay,” Ranma replied. “I’ll... I’ll be right down?”

She hurriedly cleaned up some of the trip wires she’d had half unspooled before heading down. Stepping into the living room, she immediately found herself tackled by a rather energetic and, apparently affectionate, streak of indigo. The feeling of being hugged was briefly off-putting, hammering home how different some things felt to Ranma in her male form, as soft chest up against her currently flat one.

As her brain then processed what was happening, she wondered why Shampoo’s grip was strong, but not bone crushing. Looking into the living room, she saw her mother looking sheepish while Soun seemed to be pouting.

“What’s going on?” Ranma asked, not really sure to whom.

“Apparently the rumours I’d heard of Nujiezu law were only partially correct,” Nodoka mumbled.

Shampoo then looked up, from snuggling her face into Ranma’s (currently rather flat) chest. “Mhm! Males found trying to steal Nujiezu secrets are sometimes killed... but! But only if they make the refusal of the invitation to join the tribe properly.”

“Um... how does joining the tribe work?” Ranma asked, still feeling weird to have Shampoo wrapped around herself. (Mostly because it was an odd set up for a conversation, but, it seemed the masculine hormones of her current form were having a strange response to Shampoo’s touch. At least that was Ranma’s best guess for how she was feeling.)

“For males, there is a one step process,” Shampoo announced with a grin.

Ranma nodded, waiting for an elaboration.

“Marriage,” Soun muttered from where he was sitting.

“Oh,” Ranma replied, before she realised what precisely he’d said. “Wait? Marriage!?”

“Mhm! Shampoo knew the moment she saw Ranma’s male form that Ranma would be an excellent husband. Shampoo already thought Ranma was very cute before the curse, but dear Ranma’s good looks as a man put marriage on the table,” Shampoo explained. “Shampoo was very hurt when Ranma ran away, but understands now from half truth Nodoka had.”

Ranma’s eye twitched a little, as Shampoo looked up at her with adorably innocent eyes. “I... I’m a girl though. I’m not ready to become _anyone’s_ husband.”

The sadness that flashed in Shampoo’s eyes filled Ranma with guilt. She didn’t like seeing her friend sad like that, but, then again, it had been Shampoo who had started the whole mess. Without any explanation either.

“Would you be ready to be a husband if you’d fallen in the spring?” Ranma asked.

Shampoo paused a moment, an argument looking like it died on her tongue, before her shoulders sagged a bit. “Fine. Shampoo can wait for Ranma to become comfortable.”

With that, Shampoo undid her four limbed grip on Ranma, returning to the ground.

Ranma let out a sigh of relief. It was something, at least. She wanted out of the deal completely, not liking Shampoo deciding to throw something on her with zero warning, but... she’d accept a compromise for now.

As she was relaxing, she spotted Akane coming down the stairs. Akane lit up when her eyes landed on the cursed girl.

“Ranma! I... wait, what’s Shampoo doing here now?” Akane asked as she walked over.

“Uh, she... there was a misunderstanding,” Ranma muttered.

“Shampoo is Ranma’s fiancée!” the girl in question replied cheerfully.

Akane’s eye twitched slightly. “Ah... for a girl you managed a pretty good supply of those. Is she suitably feminine in your eyes then, Ranma?”

“Pardon?” Ranma asked, not sure where this was coming from.

“Shampoo is very feminine. Not as cultured as Ranma, but fond of cute and pretty things,” Shampoo helpfully added.

“I’m sure she’ll be happy with you then,” Akane replied.

“What does femininity have to do with anything?” Ranma asked, still utterly lost. “I... is this about calling you tomboyish earlier Akane?”

Akane turned to the currently male Ranma with a raised eyebrow. “If you’re really so bad at figuring out what might upset a girl, maybe you should stay in your cursed form.”

With that, Akane left back upstairs in a huff. Ranma decided she needed to grab a bath, in the hopes that returning to her birth form might solve her confusion.

-b-

Ranma had been more than a little surprised to wake up wrapped in Shampoo’s arms. Groggily, she realised they’d not actually addressed where Shampoo would sleep the night before, but she hadn’t clued in that the Nujiezu girl’s plan was to sneak into Ranma’s room once she and Nodoka had fallen asleep.

Wiggling out of Shampoo’s muscular grip had proven difficult, but Ranma had managed it in the end and snuck down to the dojo for some morning practice. The look Akane gave her when she arrived confused her, but she was too tired for a proper conversation.

Then Kasumi called for breakfast, and Ranma had to deal with Shampoo’s attempts to be flirtatious and cuddly the whole meal. And the way it seemed to raise Akane’s blood pressure. It wasn’t doing wonders for Ranma’s either, though she was a bit more comfortable being flirted with by a girl in her birth form... for reasons she didn’t fully understand.

Ranma had barely convinced Shampoo she should stay behind and help Kasumi with housework if she was going to stay at the Tendo home before leaving in the morning. That allowed Ranma to run off after Akane and Nabiki on the way to school. Akane gave Ranma the silent treatment all the way to their shared classroom, however.

“Come on, Akane... could you at least tell me why you don’t like being called tomboyish?” Ranma asked, stepping in the class after Akane.

“I guess being a perfect lady all your life, you’ve really never had to deal with what people mean when they say it?” Akane countered, her eyes narrowed.

“A perfect... I can assure you I haven’t been a ‘perfect lady’ my whole life,” Ranma shot back, crossing her arms.

“Oooh, is Saotome about to confess some dark secret?” a voice asked from behind her.

Spinning around, Ranma took a moment to place that face. They were familiar, but something was different. Some significant... the uniform. Sure, Ukyo had gotten in trouble for wearing pants or shorts with her uniform before, but a gakuran was quite a change.

“Ukyo? What are you doing here?” Ranma asked, nearly tripping as she backed up.

“I should think that ought to be obvious, Saotome,” Ukyo replied with a sly grin.

“Hm? Who’s this? Don’t tell me he’s your ex or something,” Akane muttered.

“Ex!?” the pair exclaimed in shock.

“I’d never date a little thief like her,” Ukyo said.

“Thief? I never stole anything from you, womaniser,” Ranma countered.

“You stole my first opportunity for vengeance, amongst other things,” Ukyo shot back.

“Okay, so I mixed up the days we were flying to China, and set the challenge for the wrong day, but doesn’t that just mean you got to win by default?” Ranma replied.

“There’s no honour in a win by default,” Ukyo grumbled. “Trying to track you down led me through hell. You could probably even say it was two hell’s of suffering.”

Before the conversation could continue, the teacher cleared his throat, sending the students to their seats while Ukyo gave an introduction. To Ranma’s horror, Ukyo was assigned a seat beside Akane. When she glanced back, she saw the pair exchanging notes on multiple occasions and felt her heart race.

When lunch finally started, Ranma was thrilled to see Akane get up, and hurried after her into the washroom. The trailing did not go unnoticed, Akane standing there waiting as Ranma walked in.

“Uh, hi?” Ranma offered.

“You followed _me_ here. Surely you have something better to say than that,” Akane replied.

“Well... I wanted to ask what Ukyo was telling you, so I can try to clarify matters.”

“Everything Kuonji said tracked pretty well with what I’ve seen. How you love showing off, and how you’re surprisingly good at having girls fawning over you,” Akane said.

“They weren’t ‘fawning’ back then, I was just being a role model,” Ranma countered, hands on her hips as she let out a huff. “I mean, maybe I got a confession or two, but that’s just young middle school girls... Ukyo just got upset about having a smaller fan club. And me defending them from Ukyo’s... _behaviour_.”

“Say what you want, I already know you’re difficult to trust, with the sob story you gave me about Shampoo before it turned out she was another one of your girlfriends... I think I’m going to listen to Kuonji’s side of things a bit more, until I have some new reason to trust you more or him less. Especially when Kuonji warned me you used mind games to twist those girls against him.”

Ranma felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Spinning around, she decided she was going to deal with the issue at the source and marched back to class. She spotted Ukyo chatting away with several classmates, and felt her eye twitch. Reaching into a pocket, she produced one of her throwing hair pins and flicked it at the wall just about Ukyo’s head, the pin imbedding itself in the drywall.

“I see you’re a bit grumpy today, Saotome,” Ukyo replied with a cocky grin, producing a few throwing spatulas of her own. “Ready to fight me then?”

“I don’t care about fighting you, but I _do_ care about you lying to Akane,” Ranma fumed.

“Ah, you’re just upset you’ve lost your touch a little. I think you deserve to have her stolen from you after what you stole from me and put me through,” Ukyo replied, before lobbing a throwing spatula back Ranma’s way.

The pair were soon engaged in a running battle through the hallways of Furinkan high school, both displaying their fondness for thrown weapons. Exploding flavour packets, proper shuriken, smoke/flour bombs, sharpened roses, and more were tossed about, making a mess of the school.

At least until Ranma slipped, having missed a ‘wet floor’ sign, and found herself careening towards a bucket. Twisting about did nothing but ensure she was sliding backwards when she hit the bucket of soapy water.

A few seconds she was soaked, sprawled on the ground, and distinctly male.

Ukyo, standing at the edge of the wet floor area, was giving Ranma a quick once over.

“Did Akane let you know about my curse? Because it certainly seems like it’s enough punishment to make up for missing out on our duel,” Ranma said, as she got to her feet.

To her annoyance, Ukyo began laughing. “It’s definitely funny to see little Ms. Perfect-Lady suddenly a man... barely a curse though, especially with what I hear about how it helped you get _two_ fiancées.”

“They both want husbands!” Ranma shot back. “Unlike you, I’m not exactly husband material.”

Suddenly, Ukyo’s smile turned sharklike. “Well, maybe my plan for this afternoon is doing you a favour then.”

“Wait, what plan?” Ranma asked, only to be interrupted by the warning bell signalling the end of lunch.

-b-

As the school day wrapped up, Ranma hurried after Akane and Ukyo. Her short legs made her almost wish she’d not changed back to girl mode, but she was able to catch up to them still.

“Akane, where are you going?” she asked, as she finally caught up.

“Ukyo invited me out to get some fried chicken,” Akane replied. “I figured you’d learned the way home by now?”

Ranma felt her heart miss a beat. She wasn’t sure why the idea of Akane going anywhere in Ukyo was so upsetting, but she knew she didn’t like it.

“Uh... m-maybe I could come a—”

Anything further was knocked out with the air in her lungs as Shampoo tackled her.

“ _Nihao_ , Ranma! Shampoo was getting most impatient for you to exit school,” the cheerful girl said.

“I thought we agreed the engagement was on hold,” Ranma protested as she wiggled out from under the more muscular girl.

“Oh... yes... it was the friendly hug?” Shampoo offered, standing back up.

“You could have at least let me finish my sentence to... they’re gone,” Ranma muttered.

Hurrying towards the street, her eye twitched a little as she realised Akane and Ukyo were nowhere to be seen. Ranma couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“Great, now I need to figure out which chicken place they went to,” Ranma muttered.

“Shampoo thinks Tori’s Chicken is the best option. Close by and most generous pricing.”

Ranma blinked, turning to the other girl. “How do you know the chicken places around already?”

“Shampoo likes chicken,” she replied with a shrug. “Why does Ranma care so much about where her other fiancée is going? Are not both engagements on hold?”

The redhead felt her cheeks grow hot. “I, uh... I don’t trust Ukyo totally. And... and Akane’s a friend either way.”

Shampoo narrowed her eyes, but said nothing as she followed Ranma over towards the nearby restaurant. It was only a few blocks, but neither girl had gone directly from the school to the restaurant, so the exact route through Tokyo’s winding streets took a few minutes to figure out, and involved more than a little second guessing.

By the time they arrived, they found Ukyo and Akane out on the patio, each with a small box of chicken legs and wings in front of them. Akane was busy complaining about something (Ranma hoped it was Kuno or some other matter that predated her own arrival in Nerima), as Ukyo listened intently, nodding along and offering occasional comments.

“Nothing seems off to Shampoo,” the indigo haired girl said, as she peered over the bushes with Ranma. “Why not take advantage of the cover for a little amusement?”

Ranma, oblivious to what Shampoo was after, continued to watch Akane and Ukyo chatting. “That womaniser... she’s just going to lure Akane in and break her heart.”

“She? Spatula boy is really spatula girl?” Shampoo asked.

“Hm? Well, yes?” Ranma replied, before she spotted Ukyo’s hand slide across the patio table.

Ukyo’s hand brushed Akane’s, probing her response. Akane, to Ranma’s distress, took Ukyo’s hand. That was too much.

Ranma leapt up, bounding across the street. She threw a shuriken, pinning Ukyo’s sleeve to the wooden patio table.

“That’s enough of that, Kuonji!” Ranma hissed, as she landed on the fence surrounding the patio.

“Spying as always, Saotome?” Ukyo replied, pulling the shuriken out of her sleeve.

“Of course I am. I can’t trust a womaniser like you around someone as sweet and trusting as Akane,” Ranma shouted.

Ukyo hopped to her feet, drawing her main spatula. “If you’re looking for a fight, then I’ll give you what you’re after.”

With that, Ukyo swung and Ranma dodged. The pair danced around the street and into the nearby park, Ukyo dominating the battle, but Ranma getting in two or three painful jabs to vital points. For her bravery, Ranma had gotten a thwack or two of Ukyo’s spatula, leaving both combattants in a rather painful shape as they battled their way across the park.

“Use the pond! You have no reach as a girl!” Shampoo shouted, briefly distracting Ranma as she noticed both Shampoo and Akane had followed them.

That momentary distraction earned Ranma another spatula blow to the gut. The force of the blow left Ranma stumbling a bit, only to find herself slipping on the muddy banks of the pond. Falling into the water, she vaguely hoped Shampoo’s idea was right, and decided to submerge herself completely. She’d practiced holding her breath for her kunoichi training, and could stay under on a partial breath than most people could manage on purpose.

After a minute had passed, surely long enough to have Ukyo nervous and looking into the water, the cursed girl lunged up, spraying a screen of water in front of her to help cover her movements. Only, as the water spray hit the ground, Ranma was left stumbling a moment.

Ukyo was nowhere to be seen. Looking around, Ranma wondered if she’d declared victory and left, until Ranma saw Akane and Shampoo not far away, staring down at something on the ground. Following their eyes, Ranma spotted a pile of clothing

on the ground with an animal of some sort crawling out of it. It had all sorts of armoured plates on the outside. What were they called...

“A pangolin! Why did Kuonji just turn into a pangolin?” Akane shouted.

“Oh, Shampoo did not know that was a curse at Jusenkyo.”

Ranma stepped over, crouching to take a look at the transformed Ukyo. Before the girl-turned-boy could say anything, Ukyo rolled herself into a defensive ball, tail wrapping defensively around her head.

“Hey, it’s okay, Ukyo. I’m not going to hurt you while you’re transformed,” Ranma said, trying to make her masculine voice still sound gentle.

Tentatively, Ukyo unrolled her long armoured tail, looking at Ranma with what seemed like nervous hopefulness.

“A pangolin curse must be very difficult,” Shampoo said as she crouched down alongside. “Traditional medicine has many ideas about what to use their scales for, and many think their meat is a delicacy.”

“Really?” Ranma asked, glancing between Shampoo and Ukyo.

The pangolin Ukyo’s eyes went big, rocking back and forth a little.

“We should get some hot water... home isn’t too far away, let’s take Kuonji back to get a bath,” Akane offered.

Ranma nodded and held out her arms for Ukyo, who (with a little reluctance) climbed into her arms. Akane, for her part, gathered up Ukyo’s clothes.

The four of them started heading back to the Tendo home, as Ranma’s mind was abuzz with questions to ask Ukyo. How had she even ended up at Jusenkyo? How had she gotten cursed? They hadn’t gotten along great, but, especially with what Shampoo had mentioned about how rough being a pangolin in China must have been, Ranma wanted to patch things up.

“What’s all this wrapping for... Kuonji, were you hurt?” Akane asked, as she’d adjusted the clothing in her arms.

“Oh, has your chest finally started coming in, Ukyo?” Ranma asked.

Ukyo replied with what Ranma thought was pouting.

“Chest, what do you mean his chest?” Akane asked. “W-wait, are you saying Kuonji is a _girl_?”

“Didn’t I mention that my last school was an all girl’s school?” Ranma asked.

Akane replied by turning bright red. “M-maybe... I... I went on a date with a girl. And not even a half boy this time...”

Akane seemed to fall into a daze the rest of the walk home. When the group entered the Tendo home they were greeted by Nodoka and Kasumi from the kitchen, both of whom confirmed the bath was free. They were also both quite interested in the exotic animal Ranma was carrying, and Nodoka became quite concerned when she found out that the pangolin was Ukyo.

Ranma hurried off to the bath, dousing herself with a little hot water from the sink before undressing herself. Ukyo gave her a strange look, until she reminded the pangolin girl that she’d just fallen into a rather muddy pond.

Sitting down in the bathing area, Ranma scrubbed herself clean, before turning to Ukyo and feeling a bit confused.

“I, uh... I don’t really know how one goes about washing a pangolin. I should probably grab a—oi! What’s that look for!” Ranma said, before Ukyo lifted her tail up to the handle that controlled the shower head Ranma was currently holding.

Ranma watched in fascination to discover that a pangolin had a prehensile tail... and then found herself being sprayed in the side of the head with hot water from the shower head.

“Hey that was—Oh! Right! I can change you back. I don’t know why I was thinking that that should wait until the soak, sorry,” Ranma replied, pointing the shower head at Ukyo.

The pangolin turned the water on again, the spray returning her to human. Twisting around to bring her hand up to the controls, Ukyo then shut it off again.

“I’ll admit... I do kind of miss the tail when I’m human,” the chef said as she sat down on a second stool.

Ranma nodded, which was followed by an awkward silence for a few moments as Ukyo washed up.

“So, uh... what were you doing at Jusenkyo?” Ranma asked at last.

“I was trying to find you,” Ukyo replied. “I managed to piece together that your mother had taken you to find some people called the ‘Joketsuzoku’ and got a vague idea of where that was. Trying to find the village, I was wandering through some woods when I ticked off a badger. It chased me way farther than was necessary, and I ended up tumbling down a slope that was threading the edge of ‘cliff’, only to end up in a pool at the bottom. When I dragged myself out... I wasn’t human anymore,” Ukyo said, growing a bit distant. “I had no idea what happened, freaked out, and just ran. Wandered the area aimlessly for a couple weeks until some poachers grabbed me and decided that scalding water was the least bloody way to kill a pangolin, to keep the scales clean... luckily they were more confused than I was when I turned back human, so I was able to beat them up and steal some clothes and money. Kept turning back every time it rained though... and kept getting chased for meat or scales.”

Ranma felt her eyes filling with tears. Overcome, she leaned over and wrapped Ukyo into a hug.

“I’m so sorry. That’s... that’s horrifying.”

“At least most people in Japan are less excited about pangolins... I still haven’t forgiven you for everything that happened in middle school though, even if I can admit following you to China was, honestly, mostly my own fault,” Ukyo snapped, wiggling out of Ranma’s hug.

“I only responded to what you’d been doing then,” Ranma countered, feeling annoyed that her attempt at reaching out was being rejected. “Going through at least a girlfriend a month... a third of them having to leave the school afterwards because they were so heartbroken. It only made sense to warn the new first years against you.”

“Going through... I wasn’t dumping them! They were breaking up with me! They’d suddenly become scared their parents might find out we were dating and broke everything off, or, in most of the cases they left, their parents _did_ find out and were transferring them to new schools!” Ukyo shot back.

“What? Then why did you never once cry during one of those breakups!?”

“I got used to it by the time you showed up,” Ukyo said, her voice rather distant. “Was that really the reason you didn’t like me? You thought I was doing a kiss and dump strategy on girls?”

“Yes?” Ranma replied.

“I... I thought it was the lesbianism you didn’t like. Since you were such a traditionalist,” Ukyo said. “That you were trying to convince the girls they were just having a school age crush phase.”

“I just wasn’t sure how to respond to girls confessing to me, because I didn’t think I swung that way. Then I told them to stay away from you because I thought you were being a jerk,” Ranma replied.

Ukyo nodded. “Alright, I guess we were both wrong about each other... should we try starting over?”

“Sure, that sounds good to me,” Ranma replied, extending a hand to shake Ukyo’s.

“I’m still going to flirt with Akane. At least as long as you still have Shampoo around,” Ukyo said, standing up and grabbing a towel for herself.

“Wait! That’s not fair! Shampoo’s crazy stubborn!” Ranma protested, grabbing a towel of her own.

Ukyo responded by sticking her tongue out, before running off. Ranma chased her into the hallway, declaring Ukyo a traitor. At least until she and Ukyo reached the living room, and the pair’s arguing was distracted by Akane turning bright red... until the sheer force of her blush turned into a nosebleed. Kasumi, who had been watching tv beside her sister, offered Akane a tissue.

“D-definitely a girl... and I’m definitely gay,” Akane muttered.

“I must say, you two are lucky father isn’t home, running around like that,” Kasumi said.

Ranma and Ukyo had their turn to blush, both having been caught up in playfully arguing and not thinking about what they’d done.

-b-

Over the next few months things... well, stabilised was the wrong word. Mousse showed up, adding chaos. Ranma and Ukyo continued to battle each other, moving to rivalry rather than hatred, as both wanted to show off to Akane. And then there was Shampoo, who had decided that flirting with Ukyo was an extra layer of trying to get rid of Mousse. Or an effort to flare up Ranma’s jealousy.

Then Genma showing up, Soun having mistaken Nodoka’s efforts at fulfilling his promise as a sign she might be interested in rebuilding relations. When that failed, his nonsensical schemes to get Ranma to embrace her curse were a constant headache. Along with that came the arrival of one Kumon Ryu, looking to pick a fight with both Genma _and_ Ranma in the name of vengeance. Kumon had, in turn, brought his own rival in the form of Hibiki Ryoga, who somehow had an even shorter temper and more destructive approach to fighting.

Things had exploded into a chaotic melee in early November. There had been no clear winner, but Akane, Ranma, and Ukyo were all bruised and tired at school the next day. Ranma was starting to zone out when the vice principal had stepped in, informing the class they had a new student. The teacher paused his lesson to let the introduction happen.

Ranma found herself sitting up as the girl walked in. She was tall, elegant, and... oddly familiar.

“Hello everyone,” the girl said. “My name is Onai Konatsu, please take care of me.”

“Konatsu!?” Ranma said, hopping to her feet. “That’s really you?”

“Ranma? This is your class?” Konatsu said, as the pair ran up to each other. “I knew you were at this school, but I didn’t know this would be your class.”

The teacher clearing his throat distracted the pair, and they were quickly ordered to their seats. It wasn’t until lunch that they were able to talk properly, Akane and Ukyo both quite curious about how Ranma knew Konatsu.

“Her mother trained me in the kunoichi arts,” Ranma explained. “We were best friends for, like, two years training together.”

“Mhm. Sadly, mother fell ill, and our official training ended,” Konatsu added. “I continued to train with my father and the various scrolls left, while Ranma headed off to learn new arts.”

“So, you’re an even better ninja than Ranma?” Ukyo asked.

“I couldn’t say that. I haven’t seen her in years,” Konatsu replied, blushing and waving her hand dismissively.

“You probably are. You were amazing when we were younger,” Ranma countered, causing Konatsu’s blush to worsen.

“What had you coming around to find Ranma after all these years?” Akane asked.

“Oh, well... you see, my father fell ill himself a couple years ago. He fought on until earlier this year, but... well, I’m an orphan now,” Konatsu explained.

“Ko-chan,” Ranma half whispered, rushing over to hug the taller girl.

Konatsu pulled her in tighter, lifting Ranma’s short legs from the ground. “I was feeling so alone, but then I remembered our promise and came to find you!”

“Promise?” Ukyo and Akane asked in unison.

Ranma, being set back down, took a moment to wrack her brain for what it was...

“Don’t tell me you forgot, Ranma? How... how, when we were little, I said I wanted to marry you? Then you said you’d happily marry me, but we were both girls so we weren’t allowed?” Konatsu said.

Ranma’s cheeks went hot and she nodded as she remembered the moment. “R-right, that promise... I remember you saying that you were special and _could_ marry a girl? I... Why were you so convinced of that?”

“You didn’t know?” Konatsu asked, before turning bright red herself. “Oh gosh... I thought you must have found out at some point...”

“So there’s a real reason?” Akane asked.

“As a lesbian, I’m very invested,” Ukyo added, leaning in.

Konatsu’s blush spread to her ears as she glanced around to make sure no one else was listening. “I... well... since in the-in the eyes of the law... I’m considered... well, since I’m trans, then...”

“Tra-Oh! Then I could get married as a bride?” Ranma asked, though her mind was already filled with thoughts of wearing a wedding dress. As well as thoughts about her father being furious about it.

“I... how do you have three fiancées, and I’m left with none?” Ukyo said, eye twitching.

“Three fiancées?” Konatsu asked. “What do you mean she has other fiancées?”

“Well, you see... Ranma picked up a curse in China that’s made it a bit easier for her to get some,” Akane said (definitely some hints of jealousy in her voice), before pouring a water bottle on Ranma’s head.

The short redhead shot up to nearly Konatsu’s height as she switched forms, and gave a nervous wave.

“Is there... is there a reverse of that curse?” Konatsu asked, looking between the three of them.

Ranma took a deep breath, getting ready to explain everything about Jusenkyo and the chaos it had brought into her life. All while bracing for the consequences that a third fiancée was going to bring to her situation. Between Akane and Shampoo, she knew who she’d choose, and she’d have made her choice clear the moment Akane stopped hinting she might just choose Ukyo instead. Konatsu, though... Konatsu had been her best friend for years, and it was a promise she’d made willingly...

Well, her life was already chaos. What was a little more?

**Author's Note:**

> Some ideas probably could have been fleshed out more, but this was supposed to be a one shot and hit something like 11 thousand words...


End file.
